This past February, Google finally started implementing its big “Google Pay” re-brand. Android Pay became Google Pay, and Google Wallet was turned into (the terribly named) Google Pay Send. Now, thanks to an update to Google Contacts, it’s getting a convenient integration with the latter of the two services.

First reported by Android Police, Google’s slowly updating its Contacts app with a new shortcut for quickly sending money to [Read More…]

Watches are all about personalization — yes, even the hardware buttons.

Android Wear 2.0 opens up new hardware possibilities for wearable makers, including the inclusion of extra hardware shortcut buttons on the case. These buttons typically land above and below the power button on the side of the watch, and can be customized to launch any app that you have installed.

So if you have a watch with extra buttons running Android Wear 2.0 — like the [Read More…]

This powerful and simple tool lets you control exactly what happens when you visit a web page.

The web is rich with all sorts of content that often needs access to personal information, and Chrome is built so that you can take advantage of almost all of it. Whether that means enabling a microphone to have a chit-chat or letting Home Depot see your location so they can show you what’s on sale, deciding what type of [Read More…]

New “Quickcuts” capability rounds out the list of Pixel Launcher features in the popular app.

Ready to try out some of the features from the Google Pixel’s home screen launcher (without sideloading a leaked APK that doesn’t quite work right)? Action Launcher has just been updated with a new “Quickcuts” feature, which recreates the launcher shortcuts feature from the unannounced Android 7.1 Nougat release. Spotted in certain Google apps by enterprising hackers, these shortcuts let you perform a [Read More…]

Android apps on Chrome OS are so more than just an interesting sideshow.

It’s looking more and more likely that Android apps will be officially coming to Chrome OS through the Google Play Store, after a brief sighting of an option checkbox and splash page on at least one device. And it’s been a long time coming — almost two years in fact, since Google first demonstrated Android apps on a Chromebook at Google I/O 2014. [Read More…]

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of launcher-replacement apps out in the wild; Nova, Google Now, Apex, Launcher X, to name a few of the more popular ones. Shortcut Launcher, though, takes a different approach than any of those. Rather than revolutionizing the way your launcher looks, Shortcut Launcher wants to change the way you use it.

Setup

Shortcut Launcher is totally painless to set up. You download it, set it as your default launcher (when prompted), and then watch as it imports the [Read More…]

A new update to Google Maps is aimed squarely at making getting driving directions less of a hassle thanks to a new “Driving” shortcut that can be added to your home screen. Aside from providing quick access to navigation mode, Google says that using the shortcut will automatically serve up ETAs on frequent destinations like home and work, along with suggested destinations based on your recent search history. From Google:

This was going to start out as a post telling you how to change the LG G3 button shortcuts to work with other apps and features when the phone’s sleeping. Only you can’t actually do that. The phone is locked to launching the camera by holding volume-down button, or Quick Memo if you hold volume-up.

Thing is, that’s all you can do. There are no other options. And that’s disappointing.

Today a deal comes from GearBest that you would be crazy to pass up. For just 39¢ + free shipping you get Klick a 3.5mm push button for your android phone. Klick allows you to set up shortcuts for your phone like flashlight and camera with a press of a button.

To get Klick head on over to GearBest.com and use promo code GBSMR. This code will drop the already [Read More…]